The Lost Starship (4 page)

“
As it turned out,” Noonan said, “the New Men were waiting for us. They struck soon after we appeared. Our sensors were still down. Everything was, except for our shields. We had barely made it out of jump.

“
I’d heard rumors that Admiral von Gunther had a picked crew of fast-recovering personnel. By what happened next, I believe it. He must have realized our peril sooner than anyone else did. Before his laser batteries could charge, he drove the
Scharnhorst
straight at the enemy. He must have known his vessel didn’t have a chance. Two of our heavy cruisers were already drifting hulks.”

Noonan frowned. “I don’t know what
type of energy the New Men hit von Gunther with, but their beams burned through armor faster than I would have believed possible.”

“What
about his shields?” Admiral Fletcher asked. He was a big man with a permanent scowl.

Noonan shook her head. “The enemy beams appear
ed to have cut right through von Gunther’s shields.”

The shock
of the information broke the spell. Officers began whispering to each other.

“Attention!”
Lord High Admiral Cook said in a commanding voice.

The room
quickly grew quiet again.

Cook
bowed his head to Noonan for her to continue.

She moistened her lips. “I don’t know how it all happened. We couldn’t record yet.
I recall raising my head. The viewer had just come back online. I saw the
Scharnhorst
making its death ride. Von Gunther took his ship straight down their throats. The enemy beams scored direct hits on his armor. I saw it with my own eyes. The armor plates blackened as the beams bored into them. I remember scooting forward on my chair, wondering why von Gunther had failed to raise his shields. Then I saw the telltale shimmer, and I knew he
had
raised them. The enemy beams simply ignored the electromagnetic deflectors, hitting the
Scharnhorst
again and again.

“My people
finally began stirring. I’ve always come out of Jump Lag quicker than others could.” Noonan shrugged. “I remember hearing von Gunther on the comm. He ordered us to retreat. He ordered us to race back to Earth and report on the New Men. He tried to say something else. I believe he had learned something important. Before he could finish his thought the
Scharnhorst
broke apart under the enemy beams.”

Maddox noted the widening eyes, the stir of those around him. Once more,
Lieutenant Noonan’s tale had surprised everyone.

Admiral Fletcher spoke up.
“How many ships did the New Men have?”

“
Three, I believe,” Noonan said.

Instead of whispering, men and women began to talk aloud
to each other.
Three
enemy ships had done this to the
Scharnhorst
? By the swiftness of the battleship’s destruction, it should have been twenty.

“
Silence in the hall!” Lord High Admiral Cook roared. “I will have silence in my hall.”

“I know what you’re wondering,” Noonan said. “How could three
vessels do this so quickly to the
Scharnhorst
? The
Bismarck
-class battleships have incredibly powerful shields. It would take four equally great craft pouring their lasers against a shield for at least fifteen minutes to begin to make it buckle. Even then, it should last another ten minutes. Afterward, the armor plating could take a hell of a pounding.”

She shook her head. “The
enemy didn’t outnumber us. It was the opposite. We had far more vessels than they did. And they didn’t have monster craft, either. If I had to guess, each of their ships had the tonnage of a heavy cruiser. The
Scharnhorst
was bigger than each of her three tormenters. What’s more, by its ramming attack, the
Scharnhorst
had forced the New Men to concentrate on her. I think von Gunther would have smashed one of their vessels if he could have reached them.

“As the admiral’s flagship broke apart,
our three surviving battleships began to unlimber their heavy lasers. The strike cruisers launched drones. Many of the destroyers together with the missile boats began flanking maneuvers. The New Men had hurt us, but we still had far more ships than they did. What’s more, von Gunther’s charge had given us time to recover from Jump Lag so that operating systems began coming online enough to begin fighting.

“I wanted to join the assault. The destruction of our ships enraged
me. Yet, I had heard the admiral’s last orders. He had almost told us something critical. I believed that then, and I still do. Something crawled down my spine. It wasn’t fear of our destruction. It…”

Her mouth moved silently before she said, “I think I sensed the historic pregnancy of the moment. As the others began firing,
I reversed course and began an emergency evacuation for the Laumer-Point. As we entered the jump, I watched the rest of the fleet—”

“You fled
the battle,” Fletcher said, sounding surprised and outraged.

“Yes, sir,”
Noonan said, flinching. “You can say it like that if you wish. I prefer to say that I followed Admiral von Gunther’s last orders. I did more than simply retreat. I also shouted orders for everyone to evacuate ship.”

Admiral Fletcher struck the table with his fist.

Noonan took a step back as everyone stared at her with disbelief. Maybe it was too much. She lowered her gaze.

“You may find this hard to believe,” she said.

Like the others around him, Maddox leaned toward her, as her voice had grown softer.

Noonan touched her chest. “In my heart, I felt
the New Men would annihilate our battle group and come after us. What I had just seen—it terrified me. Their technology was far superior to ours. I felt a duty to return home and report that. It turned out I wasn’t the only one who obeyed Admiral von Gunther. One of the motherships along with a strike cruiser and four destroyers made it through. After they recovered from Jump Lag, the others began to race for the next Laumer-Point. It would take them a week of hard acceleration to reach it. As they began the journey, all hands aboard my escort ejected in the lifeboats. I’d left the ship on automated, setting it to follow the mothership.”

“This is gross cowardice in the face of the enemy,” Admiral Fletcher declared.

“No,” Noonan said, staring straight ahead. “I had a hunch. I believed the New Men would be coming. I took my lifeboat and raced behind a nearby asteroid. We barely made it. I began recording with passive sensors. This is what I discovered. Three enemy vessels of heavy cruiser size came through the jump point. It indicated to me that none of the enemy had sustained any damage from us. I learned something else, too. Their ships began functioning within thirty seconds of appearing in the new system.

“
Jump Lag clearly didn’t distress them like it does us. Their sensors locked on the fleeing warships. The enemy beams fired within minutes of their arrival. It wasn’t a laser beam. My instrumentation was clear on that. The fleeing cruiser and destroyers turned around to fight. The mothership launched several squadrons of strikefighters and bombers. And that’s when things became weird.”

Noonan
bit her lower lip. “I heard several of our bombers hailing the New Men. Answering pulses returned from the enemy craft.”

“
What’s this?” Fletcher asked. “You’re suggesting those bombers were in communication with the New Men?”

“I suggest nothing,
Admiral,” Noonan said. “I’m just reporting what I saw. I watched a squadron of bombers detach from the wave of strikefighters heading at the enemy vessels. That squadron moved away even as Commodore Franks on Mothership
Constellation
gave them orders to attack. I’m not sure, but I think Franks trained his lasers on the errant bombers.”

“What do you mean,
think
?” Fletcher asked, his features contorted with rage.

“
Constellation
gained sensor lock on the wayward bombers,” Noonan said. “Then, I heard Franks accuse Commander Miles of treachery. Before the mothership’s lasers could fire, the New Men destroyed the giant carrier under a combined barrage. Afterward, they demolished the attacking strikefighters. Within forty minutes of their arrival in the system, the New Men had annihilated the remaining ships of our battle group.”

Noonan
looked up, scanning those gathered in the chamber. “Three enemy vessels demolished a greater number of our ships without suffering any harm in turn. They annihilated us with an ease I wouldn’t have believed unless I was part of it.”

“Wait, wait,” Fletcher said. “You must back up. What happened to the other lifeboats and to Commander
Miles’ bombers?”

Noonan cocked her head and stared into the distance. “The New Men beamed every lifeboat but mine. The
last bombers…they approached the enemy vessels and landed in a docking bay. Afterward, the three ships left, heading back to the Pan System.”

“Did the New Men order the bombers to land?” Fletcher asked.

“If they did, I didn’t hear it,” Noonan said. “In my opinion, Commander Miles went willingly.”

Lord High
Admiral Cook stepped near as he indicated an empty chair.

Noonan
stared at him for a moment before sitting down in it.

The
Lord High Admiral glowered at the others. “All right, then. You’ve heard what I’ve heard. There are several troubling elements to the story. I’m sure each of you has reached the same conclusion I have, but I will enumerate the problems. Compared to us, the invaders have seriously advanced weaponry. It allowed three of their ships to destroy masses of ours: a fleet composed of fourteen capital ships. I am inclined to pull our other groups back. I fear trying to beat the enemy in a battle of maneuver. The New Men are far better than us at recovering from Jump Lag in every way. Yet, the worst problem is this: we clearly have spies in our midst, traitors helping the New Men. How else did the enemy know to guard the Pan-Aphrodite route? It would appear that Commander Miles on Mothership
Constellation
communicated with them in some fashion. That the New Men were able to corrupt Star Watch combat officers would seem to mean they have an active secret service among us. It would also appear that they have full knowledge about Earth. In return, except for the color of their skin, we know nothing about them.”

Lord High
Admiral Cook rapped his knuckles against the table. “This is a dire situation, people. Before we move against them again, we will have to come up with a plan on how to defeat vastly superior ships. What’s more, we must figure out a way to keep them from learning our secrets.”

Silence filled the chamber as his words sank in.

Finally, Admiral Fletcher stirred. “Sir,” he said.

“Go head, Admiral.”

“What if the New Men don’t wait for us to move, but they invade Commonwealth territory first?”

“Exactly,” Cook said. He
looked from right to left, taking his time doing it as he stared at each person in turn. Finally, he said, “I’m open to suggestions, people. Because if the New Men invade us, I don’t know what we can do to stop them.”

That night, Maddox lay in bed unable to sleep. He kept staring up at the ceiling, thinking about the past twenty-four hours.

Caius
Nerva, Sergeant Riker, Admiral von Gunther, Commander Miles and the New Men—what did it all mean? The golden-skinned invaders from the Beyond had a secret service organization operating on Earth. That seemed clear from the lieutenant’s story. The traitorous commander in the bomber had landed on an enemy warship. The three enemy cruisers had been waiting at the right entry point into the Pan System.

After the meeting,
Maddox had checked a star chart. There were three jump points in the Pan System, all widely divergent from each other in location. The New Men had been waiting at the Aphrodite Five-Pan route. In order for von Gunther to reach Aphrodite Five, he would have first taken a long journey through the Beyond. That journey had taken at least two months. Maddox had confirmed the route with Brigadier O’Hara. By their ready presence and quick attack, the New Men had logically known a Star Watch battle group was on its way and nearby.

With his hands behind his head
on the pillow, Maddox thought about that.
I doubt their sensors are so superior to ours that they can see down tramlines or light years away into a different star system. If their sensors were that good, the New Men would have spotted Noonan in her lifeboat while she hid behind the asteroid. The easier answer is that traitors in the battle group were sending secret messages to the enemy
.

I
f the New Men had agents in the Star Watch and the Commonwealth governments, that meant enemy case officers had been here awhile. It took time to set up a good spy ring and to solidify a hold onto traitors who would willingly see their comrades die because of their treachery.

How long have the New Men been among us?
It was a chilling question for more than one reason.

Maddox swiftly rose to his feet, padding
down the hall to the liquor cabinet in his living room. He wore briefs, exposing his lean frame.

In moments, he held a tumbler with ice and Scotch whiskey. He sipped, closed his eyes and felt the fiery liquid go down.

He knew himself to be unusual in several ways. Swirling the ice, he poured himself another and slammed it down this time. With a gasp, he clunked the tumbler onto the liquor cabinet.

He’d
never really been drunk before. His body burned up alcohol far too quickly for him to stay intoxicated. He had tested himself, and it turned out he had a fast metabolism. What’s more, his core temperature wasn’t 98.6 but 99.4 on average. Dueling came easier to him than for others because his reflexes were abnormally quick. He was also stronger than he looked, benching fifty percent more than someone his size should have been able to do.

I’m different—not a lot different, just enough to help me win most of the time
.

As the tumbler sat on the cabinet,
Maddox rotated it. A numbing swirl struck his brain, the whiskey doing its damage. The feeling would go away soon.

Why don’t I swig from the bottle?
See how much I can guzzle.

He’d defeated
Caius Nerva while the other wore a Tojo bodysuit with advanced speed settings. The brigadier recognized that he shouldn’t have been able to parry every stroke. Yet he had. Even so, he would have lost the match except that Sergeant Riker understood what had been going on.

My
aide set the stunner to kill
. That wasn’t the first time Riker had surprised him.

Frowning, Maddox began to pace like a caged leopard.
Why was he different? He wished he knew.

The Parker family had raised him. Maddox still remembered the day when his “mom” had told him the horrible truth
: “You’re adopted.”

Four years ago,
using the full extent of his skills, Maddox had hunted down his real mother’s identity. There had been precious little to discover. She had arrived on Earth just in time to deliver him. She’d come on a Spacer packet from New Poland. He went there, and after two weeks of detective work, he found she had come from Brisbane. The trail had iced up on the small Windsor League planet. He hadn’t been able to find out anything more there.

Nancy Halifax, his mother—he believed the name an alias—had
taken the interstellar voyage a little over two decades ago. She came to Earth, delivered him and died. From her sparse records, she’d appeared normal enough.

But
I’m not
. The first time Maddox had seen the footage of the New Man attacking the Odin marines, it had shocked him. That’s when he had started to wonder.

That was his terrible secret. He wondered if his mother had met a New Man, an invading rapist perhaps.
The implications…

That would have
happened over two decades ago. Did the New Men know then they were going to invade the Oikumene? Did they begin to infiltrate the Commonwealth back then?

The
inferences were horrible. The evidence pointed to a long-term infiltration. There were traitors among them, people who had sided with the invaders.

Maddox laughed
bleakly. Lieutenant Noonan’s tale would unleash a witch-hunt among the military. How long would he last under that kind of scrutiny with a burning mentality for vengeance? If High Command came to a similar conclusion about him…would the Intelligence people torture him for information he didn’t have? If the New Men were that superior in technology and ability—
I have to run. But where
will I go? Will my father’s people take me in? Wouldn’t genetically superior people look down on a half-breed?

Maddox stared at the
melting cubes in the tumbler. He laughed again, a hopeless sound. He wasn’t used to making those. This was all a theory, nothing more. Surely, there were other explanations for his enhanced physical abilities.

Maybe I’m just gifte
d. Maybe I’m a sport, a mutant. Don’t those appear in a population from time to time?

He cocked his head, realiz
ing he’d just heard a quiet click from outside. Slowly, he lowered himself until he crouched on the rug and concentrated, listening. His eyes widened. He heard the soft hum of antigravity pods outside his apartment.

Yes, s
omething was outside his window. The drapes were shut. He’d have to crawl over to the window and peer out to see what it was. He lived on the fortieth floor. That meant—
A crash sounded. The living room window blew inward. Because he crouched
low, the spray of shards that shredded his curtains flew over him except for one. That sliver of glass grazed the top of his shoulder, drawing blood.

Maddox hadn’t turned on the lights.
That was a piece of good fortune because he wasn’t spotlighted now. He looked up from his position. A sleek air-van lifted into sight about thirty meters away. A side door slid open on the van, and two operatives readied themselves for a leap. They wore repulse-packs, body armor and helmets with masks. Each of them carried a stubby shotgun-type weapon.

Tanglers! They’re man-hunters. Did
Octavian Nerva send them?

Maddox had no way of knowing. He also lacked a weapon. Simply running seemed like a poor idea. He had to upset their timing.

As the van closed the distance, sliding nearer to the window, Maddox reached up to the liquor cabinet. His fingers curled around the tumbler. The two hunters jumped, gliding toward his smashed window. Beyond them hovered the air-van with the open side door. Through that, Maddox spied the driver at the controls. It was a narrow opening.

With a snarl, Maddox stood, cocked his arm and hurled the tumbler. It paid to do the unexpected. His glass would bounce off body armor and mask alike
, so hurling it at the approaching hunters seemed futile.

The tumbler sped past the two, reached the open van and shot through the narrow opening. It failed to connect with the driver’s head. Instead, the glass struck his armored window and shattered. A shard struck the driver’s face. His arms shot out and
, likely, his foot didn’t remain in the right place. The air-van lifted, accelerating fast. One of the hunters must have noticed something amiss. He glanced back.

Maddox was already moving
away from them.

The second hunter cocked his head as if listening to an earbud. Then their repulse-packs brought them through the window and into Maddox’s living room.
One of them struck the back of the couch with his shins. That upset his balance. The hunter slammed onto his chest against the rug. The other landed smoothly, his legs churning as he ran.

Already moving, Maddox thought fast, gauging
his options. They must have struck in the living room because someone in the van had radar and knew his precise location. Now, for as long as it took the driver to recover and bring the air-van back into place, he would be on equal footing with these two.

Neither of the
m shouted his name or took a shot. Likely, they scanned with their helmet HUDs in the darkness.

Maddox glided through the hall. His
normal coolness evaporated. The senior Nerva had acted with speed, sending hunters after him. Did that mean the tycoon had already struck at Sergeant Riker?

New Men, Methuselah People—how much corruption could a planet take? With all these bribes
changing hands, everyone should be rich.

P
anic thrummed in Maddox’s brain. He wasn’t sure who he was anymore. Did he belong in Star Watch Intelligence or not? This was like the day his mother had told him they’d adopted him.

“What?
” he’d asked her. “You mean I’m not your son?”

“Of course you are, dear. I love you. Your father loves you.”

His world had turned upside down. “Do you mean my real father?” he’d asked.

A hurt look had crossed
his adopted mother’s face. He remembered that. It had helped him realize she did love him. He also knew that something had departed his heart that day. His famous cool had begun to assert itself from that time forward. Maybe he’d had to operate that way to protect himself.

Behind him, a
rmored footfalls told Maddox the man-hunters knew where he was. A repulse-packed whined. It would push the hunter, giving the man speed. Maddox knew he wasn’t going to reach the heavy rifle in his bedroom in time.

He
darted into the bathroom since he was already at the door. With a lunge, he lifted the porcelain cover off the toilet’s water tank. Whirling, he charged back.

The first hunter poked
in his tangler barrel and helmeted head. Maddox swung. The porcelain cover smashed into pieces against the helmet. The tangler made a
popping
sound. A golf ball-sized capsule struck the wall, exploding into strands, immediately tightening. If a capsule had hit him, he’d have been tangled in an unbreakable web. At the same time as the shot hit the wall, the hunter catapulted backward, striking his partner with his repulse-pack. The two hit the far hall wall, bouncing off and tumbling forward.

Like a lynx, Maddox was on the first
attacker, his legs straddling the fallen man’s shoulders. The captain clutched the head with one hand under the chin, the other on the back of the helmet. With a savage twist, Maddox snapped the vertebrae, killing the man.

The other must not have realized
what had happened yet. The man shouted, and a knockout mist hissed from a small cylinder on his chest.

Maddox recognized the danger.
They had masks. He didn’t. Holding his breath, he squirmed away, rolled on the tiled floor with his shoulders and slithered around the corner into his bedroom. Another
pop
sounded. Another capsule splatted against a wall, this time in his bedroom.

“Claude!” the hunter said.

Frenchmen or French Canadians
, Maddox thought.

“I kill you,” the hunter shouted.

Maddox didn’t think so. Reaching into the closet, he pulled down a heavy rifle, a Khislack .370. A flick of a switch turned on the targeting computer. On silent feet, Maddox backed up, climbing over his bed and moving onto the far side. He aimed at the wall. The computer gave him an image of a man in body armor tiptoeing toward the bedroom door, holding a tangler in one hand and a force blade in the other.

With the barrel aimed at the wall, Maddox fired three
times, each shot making the Khislack buck in his hands. The targeting computer told him the story as the heavy bullets blew through the wall. The home invader staggered, made a gurgling sound and slumped onto the tiles. They were both dead now.

What about the driver
in his van?

Had
Octavian Nerva just sent Maddox a message with this attack?

The panic in Maddox’s brain changed to rage. If he’d been thinking with his normal cool
ness, he might have reconsidered his actions. The captain sprinted for the living room. A frozen snarl spoke of his resolve. The Khislack felt good in his hands. He’d taken down the hunters with it. Now it was time to finish the job. As he rounded the corner, he remembered the van’s radar.